STEWART AIRPORT — Stewart International Airport led its five competitors in on-time departures for the second month in a row in September.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, released Thursday, said 88.9 percent of Stewart's outbound flights left on time.

The airport also had the best on-time arrival numbers, with 82.5 percent of inbound flights on time.

The National Aviation System was responsible for 7.9 percent of inbound flights being late — five flights were delayed a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes — and all of that was blamed on volume in the system. Carriers were responsible for most of the remaining delays.

A flight is considered on time by the industry if it lands or takes off less than 15 minutes after the scheduled time.

It was a better than average month for on-time departures at all the airports, with only Newark Liberty, at 75.7 percent, falling below the 80 percent threshold.

The monthly report was a bit of good news for Stewart, which has hit some rough waters lately.

It was recently reported that passenger volume had dropped five months in a row — from April to August — compared to the same months in 2011. And in September, Delta ended its two daily flights from Stewart to Atlanta, which is likely to have a big impact on passenger volume in the coming months.